Alexis Rinere – Staff Writer

arr5887@psu.edu

The Constitution, written in 1787, holds 27 amendments defining the fundamental laws of the United States government. The Constitution was last amended on May 7, 1992 when the 27 amendment was ratified. 

To approve a new amendment it must first be proposed by two-thirds vote of both Houses of Congress. The amendment must then be ratified by three-fourths of State Legislatures. Clearly, it is not easy to ratify the constitution. However, in many situations it is painfully outdated. The Constitution was created by people thinking about their future, although, seeing as that was over 200 years ago, we must amend it to think about our futures. 

The Constitution does not allow citizens who were not born in America to be President of the United States, and this should be ratified. Many immigrants who now live in America have spent most, if not all, of their lives here and likely know just as much , if not more, about America as the born citizens do. 

When the Constitution was written the writers could not have foreseen the invention of large social networks such as facebook and google. Now however it may be beneficial to add the protection from surveillance to the fourth amendment as these social networks are constantly updating their privacy and surveillance policies. 

We should not ratify the constitution for a situation that will be temporary, but things such as immigration and social media will never be a topic of the past. People will continue to immigrate and social media and the internet will only continue to grow and improve. 

We should also amend the constitution to limit the terms of our Supreme Court members. While the presidency has a max of 8 years, the justices do not. Supreme Court Justices currently are appointed to life-long terms, and a limit on this should be imposed. 

It is a difficult thing to amend the Constitution, but sometimes these things are necessary for the betterment of society, and to plan for longevity in our government. There are numerous more ways that the Constitution needs to be changed to fit the needs of our current state, however, I feel that these are vital and should be addressed now.